The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is about a young man named Jurgis Rudkus who moves to Chicago (Packington, the center of the meatpacking industry) from Lithuania with his wife, Ona, and other relatives. Jurgis overcomes many obstacles and I was surprised to see how he got through some of them, everything from being arrested to being homeless and having to beg. Read on and find out more about Jurgis and him rising through it all. .
The main character is Jurgis Rudkus; he comes to America in hopes of finding a better life for himself and his family (basically what everyone comes to America for). In America he is faced with many hardships and goes through many ups and downs. In Chicago Jurgis faces all difficulties imaginable such as very harsh labor, where every day can be a fight for ones life, death of many family members including his wife, child, father, etc. At some points of Jurgis's life he turned to drinking, went to prison and has been through many other circumstances that would make a person give up, however he always kept on trying. .
Jurgis really wanted to spread the idea of socialism but no one wanted to listen to him, until his luck finally changed, and he got a job as a porter in a hotel that paid around $30 a month. Jurgis finds out that his boss, Tommy Hinds, is a state organizer for the socialist party and a well-known socialist speaker. Jurgis joined the socialist party and at a meeting, a powerful speaker announced for all socialists to keep on fighting and promising that Chicago will be theirs. So yes, at the end Jurgis did get what he wanted and he had to work very hard for it, as well. .
Upton Sinclair's objective was to show the real working situation in Chicago during that period of time. Sinclair shows the failure of capitalism throughout the whole book, the author showed what happened to Jurgis as well as his whole family because of the poor working conditions (capitalism) in factories such as the meat packing industry.